Creating a Love Temple

Creating a sacred or special place for love tells us that love, and our partners, are important. In the Kama Sutra, Vatsyayana lists sixty-four desirable arts and sciences. He includes:

• The art of making beds, and spreading out carpets and cushions for reclining
• Spreading and arranging beds or couches of flowers, or flowers upon the ground
• The art of preparing perfumes and odours
• Proper disposition of jewels and decorations, and adornment in dress
• the art of applying perfumed ointments to the body, and of dressing the hair with unguents and perfumes and braiding it
• Knowledge of the art of changing the appearance of things, such as making cotton to appear as silk, coarse and common things to appear as fine and good.

The ritual of transforming you bedroom into a place of sensuality focuses your attention on connecting with your beloved. By physically clearing space - tidying the room putting fresh linen on the bed, arranging cushions and throws - you can lift the energy of the room, so it becomes a nest of desire and comfort.

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In the pleasure room, decorated with flowers, and fragrant with perfumes... the citizen should receive the woman, who will come bathed and dressed, and should invite her to take refreshment and to drink freely. He should then seat her on his left side and, holding her hair and touching also the end and knot of her garment, he should gently embrace her with his right arm. They should then carry on an amusing conversation on various subjects, and may also talk suggestively of things which would be considered as coarse, or not to be mentioned generally in society.

They make then sign, either with or without gesticulations, and play on musical instruments, talk about the arts and persuade each other to drink.

At last, when the woman is overcome with love and desire, and the two are left alone, they should proceed as the Kama Sutra described.